The Essential Guide to Twitter Etiquette

Newbie guide to Twitter etiquette

So you’ve set yourself up a Twitter account for your small business, put up a profile picture and now you’re ready to go. But wait. There’s a bit more you need to do before you make your first Tweet. Like all social media, there are rules to follow to ensure you are making the most out of your Twitter experience. And engaging the right way.

Here are 10 tips to Twitter etiquette

Don’t follow everyone – You don’t need to follow everyone that follows you. Follow people that are of interest to your specific topic or topics. Look at their profile to decide first.

Say thanks when someone retweets your tweet or follows you – it’s polite. If you get heaps of retweets, remember to use a reply rather than a mention so as not to spam your followers (see item 10!).

Your followers – be mindful that your followers want useful information. Something that is relevant to your business and your area of expertise – and theirs too. By selecting what you Tweet, and thinking before you do so, you’ll ensure that others gain valuable information from following you. Remember that they followed you because you posted something of interest to them, and they want more of it.

Don’t tweet too often – this is considered spamming your followers. A good rule of thumb when starting off as a newbie is to tweet about 5 times a day. Then build up. Also, don’t send out heaps of tweets all at once. Space them out.

Limit self-promotion – Don’t tweet about yourself and no one else. Twitter is for engagement and for providing useful information to your followers.

Interact – Twitter is all about interaction. Don’t just like or retweet, but add in your own comments to the retweet – after all, you’ve chosen to link it for your followers so add a bit of thought into it and join in the conversation.

Show your personality and your brand in your interactions. While we don’t want to hear about your day to day travels, you need to come back to why are you on Twitter and what’s the purpose to each of your followers.

Stick to 2 hashtags in each tweet and make sure that they are relevant.

Keep your tweet to 100 characters. You have 140 to use, but leaving space gives others opportunity to include their comments in a retweet.

Learn the difference between a reply and a mention. Both use the @username. If it’s at the start of the tweet, it’s a reply, and only that user and users who follow both of you will see it in their timeline. If the @username is in the middle or end of the tweet then it’s a mention. All mentions will appear in the timeline of the user who tweeted it plus the user mentioned. If you send a reply to another user who isn’t following you then the reply won’t be on their timeline – instead, it will appear as a notification.

So that’s a few Twitter etiquette basics to start with

For more Twitter tips, subscribe to my blog where I’ll next show you some tips to enhance your Twitter images so they don’t get cut off.

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“Kelly O’Donnell is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.”